Portable electronic devices continue to become increasingly complex. For example, mobile telephones are no longer limited to providing telephone functionality, but are also implementing multimedia and other functions. The increased complexity of portable devices imposes a tremendous burden on power consumption and battery lifetime. Despite the additional features being implemented in various devices, the manufacturers of these devices and their customers typically require substantially the same or even improved battery lifetime. Various types of power control systems have been developed that control the output voltage of a power supply.
One approach employs a power control system to operate a DC-DC buck converter for supplying the voltage to the core circuitry of the electronic device. FIG. 1 depicts an example of a power supply (e.g., including a DC-DC buck converter) 10 that can be used to provide regulated power for various applications. A control system 12 controls one or more switches of a switch network 14 to supply current to an associated load 16 through an inductor 18. A capacitor 20 is coupled across the load 16 for providing a corresponding output voltage. The control system 12 calculates an error voltage and adjusts the output voltage of the converter 10 accordingly. The control system 12, for example, operates in multiple operation modes, such as a low power mode and a normal, high power mode.
In view of the increased requirements of portable electronic devices, it is desirable to further reduce power consumption in the control of power supplies and converters.